Don Strachan has a good memory, so good the 95-year old can remember exactly how his Wallabies team was cruelly denied a win in the second Bledisloe Cup test of 1955 in Dunedin.
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"At half-time it was nil-all at Carisbrook, there was a huge crowd there and it was a terrible ground. It was like running on plasticine, it was soft underfoot and very tiring on your legs," he said.
"We were well and truly on top and we got right onto their line and the ruck collapsed. I was at the back of the ruck and the ball came out and I picked it up and dived over to score.
"Well, the referee penalised me for being offside, I couldn't possibly have been offside. Anyway in the second half we had a pass by Cyril Burke to our winger Ronny Phelps ruled forward and the referee was nowhere near it.
"Even the New Zealand papers said it wasn't forward. That would have won us the Bledisloe Cup."
Strachan became the oldest living Wallaby and NSW Waratahs player following the 2023 death of his good mate Eric Tweedale.
![Don Strachan receives a guard of honour before the derby between Emus and Orange City on May 18, 2024. Picture by Dominic Unwin Don Strachan receives a guard of honour before the derby between Emus and Orange City on May 18, 2024. Picture by Dominic Unwin](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/131358433/19175a88-eb22-423f-9100-652e8610718c.JPG/r1353_571_3035_1580_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
His remarkable life also tells the story of rugby union in Orange, having helped found Emus in 1947 as well as captain many a Central West and NSW Country team throughout the years.
A part of Orange's history
Born into a potato farming family in 1929, Strachan draws ancestry from two of the Colour City's pioneering families. He is the great-great grandson of Joseph Moulder and his mother was a Bowen while his grandfather was the mayor of East Orange.
He attended Spring Terrace School, Orange High School and later Hurlstone Agricultural High School, where he was selected for a combined high schools team which played a game in front of 20,000 ecstatic people on Victory in the Pacific Day.
He returned home shortly after, where a chance conversation with Neville Plowman in the street one day led to the formation of the famous team in green.
"He asked me if I fancied a game of rugby and I said 'oh yeah, I can do that'. That was just a pick-up Orange side after the war. There was no organised rugby, we used to play against visiting sides," he said.
Out of the pick-up side Emus was born and in 1948 the side played its first matches in a four-team all-Orange competition.
Strachan would play for the club until his retirement in 1961, sharing the pitch with his fellow founders Plowman, John Smith, Jim Caldwell, Noel Culverson and Kevin Eslick.
Remarkable recovery
As Strachan's rugby career progressed, representative honours followed, culminating in pulling on the green and gold for the 1952 tour of New Zealand.
It almost ended before it began however after he was hospitalised for nine months after being hit head-on by a truck when riding his motorbike.
"I had a hell of a big motorbike accident in 1947 and ended up in hospital for nine months," he said.
"I nearly lost my leg and I was told I would never play again. But thanks to my dad and a really fantastic doctor named Tom Lee [I did]. I had six operations."
If Strachan's story wasn't already a rollercoaster ride, in 1957 he was offered the captaincy for the Wallabies' tour of Great Britain, Ireland and France only to decline due to family commitments.
He said it was an agonising decision but one he stands by.
"It was a seven-month tour with 54 games, and mind you, we weren't getting paid," he said.
"My dad wanted to retire and I was born to be a farmer, it was what I knew.
![Emus' inaugural side in 1948, which played in a four-team, all-Orange competition. Picture from CWD archives
Emus' inaugural side in 1948, which played in a four-team, all-Orange competition. Picture from CWD archives](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/131358433/e3d5d2d3-973e-43d5-bf8f-4f7d28a5135f.jpeg/r174_307_5602_3689_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
'You can't really take seven months off the farm.
"I knew I had to make a decision."
It was while driving with friends in Sydney he pulled over to use a phone box and made the fateful call.
"I sat down in the phone box on a stool for a while and thought this really is the end of it if I do this," he said.
"I picked up the phone and told them I couldn't go. It was a very emotional time in my life. Anyway I came home and said to my wife Wendy 'look farming is our future, we need to make a success of it."
Home is where the heart is
While there are many highlights to look back upon, the prop said some of his favourite memories are playing in various NSW representative sides, especially at Wade Park against teams such as South Africa and the New Zealand Maori.
The 1958 match against the Maori was his final representative match for Central West while at club level he holds the 1958 grand final in high regard, with Emus winning their first Central West premiership against a "crack" Yeoval side.
Strachan presented the match ball and first XV jerseys on Saturday May 18 for the first derby match of the 2024 season, walking out to the middle of the field bearing his name.
He still enjoys cheering on his beloved team and is proud of the legacy he and others created almost 80 years ago.
"It's always been a great club," he said.
"When we first started the club we said we were going to be a club for the players. We aren't going to be a corporate club.
"We used to do rabbit drives, even the girlfriends and wives, and sell them to Barrett's. That's how we made money."